Fernando Alonso has urged his Aston Martin team to embrace the heightened “pressure” on it heading into next season, citing that Formula 1 “is not a charity event”.
After successive placings of seventh since morphing into Aston Martin in 2021, the Silverstone-based squad began the past season as Red Bull’s closest contender.
But having attained six podiums in the opening eight races via Alonso, Aston Martin was overhauled by Ferrari and Mercedes, who both introduced new car concepts.
Although Alonso registered two more top-three race finishes, problems with upgrades resulted in a slump that enabled McLaren to demote Aston Martin down to fifth place.
But with Aston Martin still accumulating 225 more points than it had done in 2022, Alonso accepts the expectations on the team for 2024 will be more intense than ever before.
“This is Formula 1, this is not a charity event,” Alonso, who classified fourth in the Drivers’ standings, declared. “We have to have the pressure, we have to deliver.
“I mean the fifth in the Constructors hurts a little bit as I think we were better than that or we were hoping better than that at the beginning of the year.
“On the Drivers to finish fourth is a little bit unreal, fighting with the guys that we were fighting. In fact, if we are fifth in the Constructors usually you should be ninth and tenth in the Drivers, so it’s a dream season for many people in Aston Martin, including myself.”
Alonso was responsible for all eight of Aston Martin’s rostrum appearances and he also outscored new team-mate Lance Stroll, with the team since 2019, by 206 points to 74.
Aston Martin Team Principal Mike Krack admitted in Abu Dhabi that it “absolutely” intends to renew the two-time champion’s contract beyond its expiry at the end of 2024.
However, Alonso insists that it will be “important” that Aston Martin deliver a competitive car next season, both in terms of his future and the British marque’s trajectory.
“Yeah, it’s going to be important [to have a good car], because obviously this is the first step of hopefully a good progress in the team,” Alonso acknowledged.
“We always said this is year one of Aston Martin being competitive – a lot of changes in the team, the new factory, all these things we’ve been saying for a long time.
“If next year if we do a step backwards that will be bad, so we need to keep moving forward. We finished fifth in the Constructors, we need to improve that next year. Fourth, third, second, whatever, will be welcome.
“In my case, after eight podiums this year, hopefully I can do something similar next.”
